Pal Narayanan

Prospects of supply chain automation have the industry abuzz. It’s even become a major sticking point in the International Longshoremen’s Association contract negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance. The dockworkers do not want ports to automate processes out of fear they will lose their jobs to machines. Today, there are seemingly endless possibilities for optimization. Terms like generative artificial intelligence and machine learning have become commonplace in discussions about ways to gain efficiencies and reduce costs. Can man and machine work together as businesses leverage automation for optimization? Beyond the Buzz: Understanding the Automation Imperative Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence (AI), is described by Business News Daily as a later-stage development in which machines take in data on their own and then analyze it. Automation, on the other hand, is fixed on repetitive tasks; after a job is performed, an automation system “thinks no further.” The Business News Daily article explained that “automation involves an entire category of technologies that provide activity or work without human involvement,” while AI involves “a machine exhibiting and practicing something similar to what we describe as human thinking – that is, the ability to interact in thousands of ways with the…

This post is written by our friends at Winfosoft. Winfosoft is a globally recognized Microsoft Cloud Services Provider with more than 30 years of experience in ERP software solutions. Learn more at: https://winfosoft.com/   Choosing a Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner is a major decision for any distributor. The right team can help improve inventory visibility, reduce errors and give leaders clearer numbers to work with. Using the wrong one can slow things down and create more manual work. This guide explores partners with proven experience in distribution and supply chain operations. Each has a slightly different focus, so readers can see which model fits their business best.   What Dynamics 365 Partners Specialize in the Distribution Industry? Microsoft Dynamics 365 combines finance, operations, sales and customer information in one system. For distributors, this means a single place to manage stock, pricing, orders and warehouse activity across locations. Specialized partners build on that core system. They design the processes and integrations that align with how distributors actually operate their businesses. This list highlights partners based on their clear focus on distribution, demonstrated experience with Dynamics 365 and independent coverage published in the last few years.   1. Winfosoft Winfosoft is a…